Wireless telecommunication systems are known. In those known systems, radio coverage is provided to user equipment, for example mobile telephones, by geographical area. A base station is located in each geographical area to provide the required radio coverage. User equipment in the area served by a base station receives information and data from the base station and transmits information data to the base station.
Information and data transmitted by the base station to the user equipment occurs on radio frequency bearers known as downlink bearers. Information and data transmitted by user equipment to the base station occurs on radio frequency bearers known as uplink bearers.
In known wireless communication systems, user equipment can move between geographical base station coverage areas or cells. The service provided to the user equipment is overseen by a radio network controller (RNC). The RNC communicates with user equipment and base stations and determines which base station each user equipment is primarily connected to. Furthermore, the RNC acts to control and communicate with a base station and user equipment when user equipment moves from one cell to another.
In order to facilitate transmission of information and data between the base station and user equipment, it is possible to configure the user equipment to operate in one of a number of different radio resource control (RRC) connection states. These different connection or communication states (such as cell_DCH, cell_FACH, cell_PCH or URA_PCH states) support different types of transmissions between the base station and user equipment to match the expected user traffic activity.
Although existing techniques facilitate transmissions between base stations and user equipment, lower than expected network performance can occur. Accordingly, it is desired to provide an improved technique for configuring transmissions.